07 November 2008

in today's lyrikmail was an untitled poem written by gëzim hajdari, an albanian poet whose works have been translated from italian into german by stefanie golisch. my italian is very, very basic, so when i translated this poem i translated the german version first, then secondly double-checked it as well as i could with the italian original. as usual, i allowed for a couple of translational liberties.

you know i would have scribed the most beautiful booki have written with the tip of a knifeinto my skin,remember, that march, the Judas trees blossomedwith terror and joy at those valleys' verges.perhaps the most beautiful bookemerged from my ashes and attuned to your life,i wrote it in the vacancy of that room while looking out through that windowwitnessing time and the recurrence of seasonslost by rain's nudity.i wrote it in penury,on moonsick, culpable days,far from you, from your gloamings,from one waterside to the other i shoulderedbooks from a country that glorifies tyrants